Title: Studying the Effects of Robot Intervention on School Shooters in Virtual Reality Show Chinese title

Title: 研究虚拟现实中机器人干预对校园枪手的影响

Abstract: We advance the understanding of robotic intervention in high-risk scenarios by examining their potential to distract and impede a school shooter. To evaluate this concept, we conducted a virtual reality study with 150 university participants role-playing as a school shooter. Within the simulation, an autonomous robot predicted the shooter's movements and positioned itself strategically to interfere and distract. The strategy the robot used to approach the shooter was manipulated -- either moving directly in front of the shooter (aggressive) or maintaining distance (passive) -- and the distraction method, ranging from no additional cues (low), to siren and lights (medium), to siren, lights, and smoke to impair visibility (high). An aggressive, high-distraction robot reduced the number of victims by 46.6% relative to a no-robot control. This outcome underscores both the potential of robotic intervention to enhance safety and the pressing ethical questions surrounding their use in school environments. Show Chinese abstract

Abstract: 我们通过考察机器人在高风险场景中分散和阻碍校园枪手的潜力，推进了对机器人干预的理解。 为了评估这一概念，我们进行了一项虚拟现实研究，有150名大学生参与者扮演校园枪手的角色。 在模拟中，一个自主机器人预测了枪手的行动，并战略性地定位以干扰和分散其注意力。 机器人接近枪手的策略被操纵——要么直接移动到枪手前面（激进），要么保持距离（被动）——分散方法从无额外提示（低）、警报和灯光（中）、到警报、灯光和烟雾以降低能见度（高）。 激进且高干扰的机器人相对于没有机器人的对照组，减少了46.6%的受害者数量。 这一结果突显了机器人干预在提高安全性方面的潜力，以及在学校环境中使用机器人所引发的紧迫伦理问题。